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Stone Castles
The Stone Castles (石城堡, Shí Chéngbǎo) are located within Qinghe territory, near Xinglu Ridge. Despite the rumor that they are "man-eating castles," they are actually the Nie family's Ancestral Hall. Appearance The Stone Castles were built to resemble domes with no windows and doors. Inside the castles, the coffins house sabers instead of corpses. Purpose The sabres cultivated by the Qinghe Nie Sect became strong enough to persist in their desire to kill evil spirits even after their owner's death. As this created havoc and bloodshed, the sixth head of the Nie Sect proposed a solution to appease the sabre spirits. He built a tomb for the sabres of his father and grandfather and buried with them a number of corpses that were about to turn into fierce corpses. This way, the sabres could continue to fight with evil spirits even after their owners' deaths. Nie Huaisang insists that no one was murdered to fill the tombs; the Nie Sect simply collected bodies, even paying high prices for the corpses. The legend of the "Man-Eating Castles" began when a group of tomb robbers broke into one of the tombs. In the process, they destroyed the corpses that were keeping the Sabre Spirits appeased. In order to maintain the balance of corpses in the castle, the castle sealed itself off and the tomb robbers then became replacements for the corpses they destroyed. The rumor of "Man-Eating Castles" is therefore true, albeit not quite as sinister as the rumors make it sound. Novel, Chapter 26 Security Measures Nie Sect uses three security measures to prevent the disruption of their Ancestral Hall. To prevent ordinary people from venturing too close to the Stone Castle, Nie Sect first spread rumors of "Man-Eating Castles," and secondly, surrounded the castle with low-level walking corpses. Thirdly, a maze array was added to keep out cultivators. Novel, Chapter 26 Jin Ling Incident After being informed of a supposed "Man-Eating Castle" by a local charlatan, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji promptly investigated. Wei Wuxian's mere presence frightened the walking corpses away, and Lan Wangji quickly solved the maze array. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji were then alerted to the presence of Jin Ling in the area by his dog Fairy. With the aid of Inquiry, the two found Jin Ling buried within the walls of a stone castle. Novel, Chapter 22 Nie Huaisang later explains that Jin Ling had accidentally destroyed a corpse while breaking into one of the castles, which resulted in his burial within the wall to replace the corpse he had destroyed. Novel, Chapter 26 After discovering a connection between the Stone Castles and the Demonic Left Arm, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji returned to find Nie Huaisang rebuilding the castle that was damaged by Jin Ling. Wei Wuxian requested that Nie Huaisang remove all of the male corpses from the walls and strip them of their pants to find the demonic arm's missing legs. Lan Wangji volunteered for this task, using Bichen to rip the corpses' pants around the knee area. They promptly discovered the legs of the corpse they were trying to find, sewn onto another body. Novel, Chapter 27 Trivia * Nie Huaisang silently lamented that he would be slapped by all his ancestors in the afterlife for allowing Lan Wangji to strip off the pants of all the male corpses in one of the Stone Castles. Novel, Chapter 27 References Category:Locations Category:Qinghe Nie Sect Category:Qinghe